Another unenforceable law added to the books of Albany County!!!

No one would disagree with a law that prohibits using dangerous chemicals on our highways, correct? And, we would all have to agree that when passing such a law government has the responsibility of making certain it will stand up in court if challenged, correct? Well… only in Albany County would a Local Law be passed by the Legislature with so many flaws that if it were challenged, it would most likely be overturned.

On August 12th the Albany County passed Local Law C 2013 prohibiting the use of saline solution, a byproduct of fracking, on Albany County highways. Unfortunately, as the Minority Conference pointed out, a mandated State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) was not completed. The county must conduct a SEQR whenever there is a privately or publicly sponsored action. We must assess and approve the environmental impact with regard to the action we are about to undertake. By law, no agency involved in an overall action can make a final decision until the SEQR process is complete.

This is one of several deficiencies with the law, and in our opinion leaves the regulation unenforceable. Even if a Negative SEQR Declaration was to be adopted, (meaning there is no adverse environmental impact) the County Legislature had the legal responsibility of researching, deliberating, and voting on SEQR findings prior to the passage of the law, as required by New York State. However, many county legislators feel they are above the law, and pay no regard to this. Even attorneys who are in the county legislature voted in favor of it, with total disregard to the State Law!

The Majority claimed that this law mirrored one passed in Westchester County and that a SEQR declaration was not voted on by the Westchester County Legislature. We found this to be untrue and delivered Westchester’s properly adopted SEQR to the County Executive.

Monday, County Executive Dan McCoy signed Local Law C, with a “signing statement” attached Local Law C Signing Statement , even though the Minority Conference urged him to veto it. He did however acknowledge that failure to adopt a SEQR was a defect that gave him “…concerns about the law’s enforceability.” Mr. McCoy urged the County Legislature to pass the required SEQR prior to filing the law with the State. McCoy went on to further state the need for SEQR to ensure the law’s viability. He wrote “…. The environmental safeguards, which I so strongly support, may be more imagined than real” due to the Legislature’s failure to follow proper SEQR protocol.

In my opinion adopting a SEQR after the fact does not fulfill NYS requirements. I believe if challenged, this law would be struck down by the courts, which is unfortunate since the premise of the law, in my opinion, is good. Needless to say, I voted against it for this very reason.

The problem is that politicians will pass a law and violate all sorts of rules and laws and if someone that is affected doesn’t challenge it, the laws stays. It is a violation of peoples right to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One cannot keep up with all the legislation that could possibly affect them with local, county, state and federal legislation passed constantly. Especially at the local level, there is so much abuse!

Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.